It means that
the "dealer" has an item X in their inventory, they see that
someone else
on Ebay is selling an equivalent X. The dealer follows the
auction to completion, when complete, the dealer sends email to the second
highest bidder and asks if they would like to purchase the item from them
for the price they offered the seller.
This is a scam? Give it a break guys. If I bid on something and am not the
high bidder I would like a chance to buy. If you don't then don't reply.
Sometimes you can get in a bidding war and end up pay many times the value
of an item, I.E. Imsai or Altec on Ebay, Is it really that different than
making an offer here to someone who has something you want? So who looses if
a seller contacts you and you agree on a fair price? Ebay? Time to face the
facts Ebay, Yahoo, etc., etc. auctions are going to stay a while.
The above was an explanation of the legitimate practice. The abuse is where
a third party pretends to be the seller, contacts the second etc. bidders
and requests payment be sent to a blind PO Box, then skips with the funds
never sending any goods.
BTW I just sent an inquiry to eBay to see if this is rumor, hoax, or fact.